On 3rd September 2016 Inminds human rights group will protest outside the Royal Festival Hall urging renowned Senegalese musician Baaba Maal to cancel his scheduled performance this month in East Jerusalem, a city that is under illegal Israeli military occupation since 1967.

In April 2004 Palestinian civil society called for a cultural boycott of Israel, for artists to respect this call and not perform in Israel.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "Baaba Maal is the 'Global Ambassador' for the humanitarian charity Oxfam, he is coming to London to talk about human rights activism and the arts, so its incomprehensible that such a principled artist is willing to act as a fig leaf for a racist, apartheid regime founded on the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people and the forced colonisation of their land. We are here to remind Baaba Maal who he is, and his responsibility towards the oppressed. When the oppressed call for a boycott of the oppressor we must heed their call if we are to keep our humanity!"

Baaba Maal is scheduled to perform at the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival in occupied East Jerusalem on 20th September 2016. In previous years African musicians like Salif Keita (2013) and Aziza Brahim (2015) have respected the boycott call and cancelled their performance in the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival. So far Baaba Maal has ignored all calls to boycott the festival, his tour manager Julian Hickman has refused to acknowledge any comparison with the global solidarity effort that helped end apartheid in South Africa and said that Baaba Maal will never “take sides” .

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "Since 1967 over 2000 Palestinian homes have been demolished in East Jerusalem at gun point by the Israeli army, the stolen land given to European colonists, leaving only 11% of East Jerusalem for Palestinians to live in. Its a city where you can witness ethnic cleansing every single day. Just today (31st Aug 2016) three Palestinian homes were demolished in the Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Sur Baher and Silwan. How can any artist with a shred of decency step over the rubble of these indigenous people's demolished homes to entertain the occupier and then claim he isn't taking sides? We ask Baada Maal to heed the words of another son of Africa, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor'."

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"The United States is 4.6% of the worlds people but still controls 50% of the worlds wealth and has a military that spends more than every other country in the world combined. I see this moment, as a moment that is very dangerous.. which is to say that the United States is a declining world economic power, similarly a declining political power, but what isn't declining is the military power. As you know from the 20th century that's a dangerous combination - a declining economic and political power but an overwhelmingly dominant military power. I think the national security state that we've seen organised since 9-11 in an unbelievably rapid way, which owes in no small part to Israel I must say, is a particular [example]."